This paper is concerned with a consideration of what is probably the central
process in equitable growth – the generation of productive and remunerative
employment. This is of course a concern that is as old as the study of economic
growth itself, and underlies all the debates about the possibilities of “trickledown”
of growth. But it has acquired particular resonance in India in the recent
past because of the apparent transformation of the economy and increase in its
growth potential, which has surprisingly (and unfortunately) not been accompanied
by commensurate increases in remunerative employment. The introductory
considers why the recent Indian experience is of particular interest, and identifies
some conceptual issues in the growth-employment linkage. The next section
describes the pattern of growth in India over the past two decades, and the
macroeconomic policies associated with this pattern. The third section assesses the
employment performance over the same period, in both aggregate and sectoral
terms. It also considers changes in the nature of the labour market and trends in
wages. The final section attempts to bring together these different dynamics
through a consideration of the enmeshing of government policies and consequent
processes, and discusses the possibilities for developing strategies that are more
explicitly concerned with productive employment generation.